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Reality Check
July 10, 2026
You’re only as old as you feel – until your skin appears magnified on a giant screen. “I don’t like the look of that,” said the doctor.“Holy shit!” I said. “I REALLY don’t like the look of that.” He was examining a mole on my back.I was staring at my skin, appalled. It was the…
No Domestic Goddess Lives Here
July 3, 2026
Have you seen inside my kitchen cupboards? Smelt the mouldy orange lurking at the bottom of my fruit bowl? Tripped over the mattock that I left in the garden last summer? A year ago, convinced it would erase my cooking phobia and turn me into a confident chef, I bought an air fryer. For all…
Not the Things I Expected to Remember
June 26, 2026
This is my very first backpack. We had many fantastic adventures together after it came into my life in 1982. Travelling solo as mostly I did (and still do), it felt more like a travelling companion than a mere bag. With this beloved pack and its subsequent replacements, I’ve had many extraordinary experiences. Here are…
The Night I Tried to Save My Dog
June 12, 2026
Please don’t call the RSPCA. My dog Misha is okay. In spite of what happened. It all started when I opened a parcel and a few of those packing cylinders fell onto the floor. Quick as a flash, Misha leaps from her bed and steals one. I grab a treat, order her to drop it,…
Laughing at the Madness: A Short Story
June 6, 2026
I’m no comedian. But as a greenie, one of my short stories still makes me laugh. I was sitting on Shoreham Beach a while back, pondering how it’s not okay for us to sunbake any more, and yet it’s fine to fry our planet, and for the fossil fuel industry to fund our political parties.…
I Have a New Hobby. A Battery.
May 31, 2026
My new hobby doesn’t take up much of my time each day, but it is enormously satisfying. Usually, at about 10.55am, I open up my battery app and watch. I love seeing the energy from my solar panels flow into my battery instead of the grid. But it’s when the clock hits 11am that the…
A Recycling Confession
May 22, 2026
But first – the denial. Aghast, I re-read the letter from Nillumbik Council. There was no way that I could have put the wrong things in my recycling bin – as they said I had. Clearly, it was Council which had made the mistake. Not me. I’m a greenie, green through and through. And a…
Cuba vs Us
May 9, 2026
In this crazy mixed-up world of ours, we humanise dogs – watching online videos of talking, clothed pets – and yet we dehumanise immigrants. Foreign-owned companies extract and export our gas for free, while our old people in nursing homes are charged extra for a cup of Moccona coffee. Cuba is labelled a state sponsor…
Writing Against the Usual Story
April 10, 2026
I didn’t write Nikki vs Jess to follow the usual story.I wrote it to challenge it. I deliberately refused to describe my two central characters.Not their looks, not their bodies.Because the usual story focuses on the appearance of women, and I wanted readers to understand them through what they say, what they do, and who…
Not a Mother, Not by Choice
April 5, 2026
Mothers – we all have them. But not all of us are one. Some women choose not to have children. Some of us don’t make that choice and – for many different reasons – never become a mother. I am not a mother. It wasn’t a decision I made. I just wasn’t with the right…